This invention relates to smoking devices and in particular to holders or supports for paper enclosed smoking mediums such as tobacco, nicotine-free lettuces and other herbs.
Smoking containers for tobaccos have been used long before the discovery of the New World of Europeans.
Hollow reeds and corn husks were used by the natives of Central America as containers for crushed tobacco leaves. The tobacco-leaf wrapped cigar was, however, the smoking mode introduced among the upper classes of Europe by the Spaniards. The beggars of Seville are credited with devising the paper wrapped cigarette from discarded cigar butts, which were shredded and wrapped in scraps of paper.
Cigarette smoking was not widely popularized until the middle of the nineteenth century. Initially all cigarettes were hand rolled whether factory packed or rolled by the user. Because of their fine linen-composition paper, the French became dominant in the supply of paper for the cigarette market, a dominance that has persisted to this day.
As accessories to cigarettes and the like became popular, a wide variety of holders and supports have been devised. The majority of holders are not discardable and hence must be carried on the person, a practice that may be a nuisance and an inconvenience. The principal advantage of the present holder is that it is incorporated directly into the paper and hence is not carried separately. Further, because of the very minor additional cost, the holder is discardable.